Elevating the Role of Marketing Procurement with Procurement Leaders

September 23, 2013

By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Procurement Leaders conference in Boston and present a session, titled “Elevating the Role of Marketing Procurement” with Sal Vitale. Sal is category leader, media procurement at Johnson & Johnson and the co-chair of the ANA Procurement Task Force. The three key takeaways from our session are highlighted below.

Takeaway #1: Marketing is an investment to be maximized and not an expense to be minimized.

Consider your personal investment portfolio. When selecting a financial planner, your primary concern is whether he or she can maximize the value of your investments. With your financial security at stake, finding the lowest cost financial planner may not be the best approach.

Takeaway #2: Marketing procurement must evolve from a tactical role (cost reduction) to a more strategic one.

The most mature marketing procurement organizations have progressed on their respective journeys to embrace more strategic metrics (like driving marketing ROI). Less mature marketing procurement organizations are encouraged to learn from the experiences and best practices of their more mature peers to expedite their progress.

Takeaway #3: Procurement needs to more closely align their measures of success with marketing colleagues.

It is incumbent on procurement to initiate those conversations and build relationships that establish trust and credibility. There should be a focus on an integrated methodology for evaluating success.